Your investigation (‘Deepfakes, cash and crypto: how call centre scammers duped 6,000 people’, 5 March) is an all too depressing reminder that the UK remains in the grip of a fraud epidemic. It is also an important warning: people don’t fall for scams because they’re careless, but because they’re targeted by ruthless criminals.
The reality is that fraudsters, often members of organised criminal networks, are finding it far too easy to exploit weaknesses in protections for consumers. Many banks and payment firms aren’t doing enough to prevent their customers from sending money to fraudsters, while tech giants remain sluggish when it comes to removing fraudulent material, like scam ads, that can ensnare so many users.
The government and regulators must get a grip by ensuring that search engines and social media firms stop scams appearing. Banks and payment firms must have strong financial incentives to shut down scammers, which is why the scam reimbursement rules that Which? campaigned for are so vital and should be strengthened.
Piecemeal action isn’t enough – stronger regulation and enforcement is urgently needed. Tech firms must be held accountable with targeted duties for more of the scam ads appearing on their sites much sooner than 2026, which is currently the timetable for implementation of the Online Safety Act’s fraudulent advertising codes. This simply isn’t good enough. Implementation must happen in full as soon as possible.
Rocio Concha
Director of policy and advocacy, and chief economist, Which?
I welcome the article on scams as this is precisely what happened to us. It sheds light on where all our money went in 2023, but fails to mention a major failure by the previous government that allowed it to happen. The primary reason we felt safe to “invest” the money from our old house while looking for one near my elderly parents was because we believed that it was a London-based company, as all the telephone numbers used started with a London area code.
If the previous government had outlawed fake adverts on social media and blocked spoof numbers, my family would still have a home.
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